Friday, February 24, 2012

News flash No. 1: People, particularly rich people who have the means to do so, will alter their behavior, acting upon their own self-interests, to avoid having to pay higher taxes... People just like Warren Buffet!

The amount of income tax paid fell sharply last month in the first formal indication that the new 50p higher rate is not raising the expected amount of revenue.

The Treasury received £10.35 billion in income tax payments from those paying by self-assessment last month, a drop of £509 million compared with January 2011. Most other taxes produced higher revenues over the same period.

The self-assessment returns from January, when most income tax is paid by the better-off, have been eagerly awaited by the Treasury and government ministers as they provide the first evidence of the success, or failure, of the 50p rate. It is the first year following the introduction of the 50p rate which had been expected to boost tax revenues from self-assessment by more than £1billion.

Although the official statistics do not disclose how much money was paid at the 50p rate of tax, the figures indicate that it is falling short of the money the levy was expected to raise.

A Treasury source said the relatively poor revenues from self-assessment returns was partly down to highly-paid individuals arranging their affairs to avoid paying the 50p rate.

“It’s true that SA revenues are a bit disappointing — it’s still early, but it looks like there’s been quite a lot of forestalling and other manoeuvring to avoid the top rate,” said the source.

Manoeuvring... Arranging their affairs...

You better believe there was a whole lot of that going with the evil 1-percenters of England. Who wants to pay higher taxes? Warren Buffet, despite his calls for higher taxes on the rich, sure doesn't.

Why else would he pay himself a salary of only $100,000 while receiving the vast majority of his income from capital gains that gets taxed at a much lower rate (15%) than would income tax on, say, a $200,000 salary.

Buffet and his hypocritical "Millionaire Patriots" can certainly pay more in taxes should they so choose. They simply choose manoeuver not to do so.